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GLASS

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Glass

I N T H I S C A P S UL E
GLASS ............................................................................................................................................................. 2

WHAT IS GLASS? ............................................................................................................................................................3

HOW IS GLASS PRODUCED? ..........................................................................................................................................3

THE DIFFERENT COLOURS OF GLASS .......................................................................................................................... 3

GLASS: TYPES, PROPERTIES, AND USAGE.................................................................................................................... 4

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What is Glass?
• Glass is an amorphous and transparent solid.
• It is also called supercooled liquid of silicates.
• It resembles a solid due to the great increase in its viscosity
when it is cooled rapidly.
• It has a tendency to flow, though very slowly.
• That is why the glass windows and doors become slightly thicker
at the bottom than at the top with the time.
• Chemically it is written as Na2O.CaO.6SiO2.

How is Glass Produced?

• Raw material used for the formation of glass are sodium carbonate,
calcium carbonate, and sand.
• Finely powdered mixture known as batch, is mixed with cullet
(broken glass pieces) and then fused in a tank furnace at 1673 K.
• After few hours, molten glass is obtained.
• Molten glass is cooled slowly and uniformly.
• The process of slow and uniform cooling is known as annealing.
• Annealing process strengthens the glass.
• Different addition of metal oxides or metal salts before it is annealed
may produce different coloured glasses.

The Different Colours of Glass

Substance used Color of glass

Cuprous oxide Red

Cupric oxide Peacock blue

Potassium dichromate Green or Greenish yellow

Ferrous oxide Green

Ferric oxide Brown

Manganese dioxide Light pink, in excess black

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Cobalt oxide Blue

Gold chloride Ruby

Cadmium Yellow

Carbon Amber color

Glass: Types, Properties, and Usage

Soft glass
• It is a mixture of sodium or calcium silicates.
• It is used in making window glass, mirrors and
common glass wares etc.

Hard glass
• It is a mixture of potassium and calcium silicates.
• It is more resistant to acids for making hard glass apparatus.

Flint glass
• It is mainly a mixture of sodium, potassium and lead silicates.
• It is used in making bulbs and optical instruments.

Quartz glass (Silica glass)

• It is used in the preparation of chemical apparatus
and optical instrument.

Crookes glass
• It is used for making lenses for spectacles.

Photochromatic glass
• On exposure to bright light, photochromatic glass darkens temporarily.
• It is very useful as a Sun shield.
• The silver bromide in the glass reduces the intensity of bright light.

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Safety glass
• The three layers are joined together by the action of
heat and pressure.
• It does not break easily under impact and is used in
the auto vehicle windshield.

Tempered glass
• It is a type of safety glass.
• It’s roughly four times stronger than single-thickness annealed glass
due to a manufacturing process with cycles of rapid heating and cooling.
• Tempering puts the outer surfaces into compression and
the inner surfaces into tension.

Laminated glass
• It's formed from two pieces of glass bonded around a
tough plastic interlayer made of polyvinyl butyral.
• Heat and pressure used in manufacturing make the lamination look
like a single piece of optically clear glass.
• That's why it works in car windshields and machinist's safety goggles,
as well as in windows, glass doors and skylights.

Optical glass
• It is used for making lenses for microscope, telescope, and spectacles.

Glass fibers
• used as insulating material in oven, refrigerator etc.

Optical fibers
• They are extensively used in telecommunication surgical operations etc.
• Optical fibers can transmit images round corners.

Lead crystal glass

• Lead glass has a high refractive index.
• It is used for making expensive glassware.

Borosilicate glass

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• Its components are silica, boric acid, aluminum oxide,
potassium dioxide and sodium dioxide.
• Borosilicate glass is resistant to chemicals and shocks and
has a very low expansion upon heating.
• This makes borosilicate fit for baking dishes, laboratory glassware,
and pipelines.

Etching of glass
• Glass reacts with hydrofluoric acid (HF),
• Therefore it is used in the etching of glass.